The Best Exercise Games for the Xbox Kinect

Dance Central Spotlight for Xbox One Harmonix has simplified Dance Central to its core dance experience, selling the basic game for $10 and hoping that you’ll buy lots of downloadable content. Because of the strong fitness capabilities, it’s definitely worth considering. Rating by steve: 4.5 stars Many of us who played Dance Central and Dance Central 2 on the Xbox 360 have been waiting in anticipation for a new version of [ Read More ]

Just Dance 2015 for Xbox One Pretty much the same as Just Dance 2014, with improved online play and a brand new track list with 45 new songs Rating by steve: 4 stars Remember a few years ago, everyone seemed to be arguing about whether Dance Central was a better game than Just Dance? We even published our famous Dance Game Dance Off to try to make sense of the [ Read More ]

Rounding out the list of promising Xbox Fitness Games announced at E3 2014 is one that we all knew was coming: Just Dance 2015. Even back in 2011 when Dance Central 2 and Just Dance 3 were competing head-to-head with each other, we were asking which one the better game was. The answer was clear: both of them. That is, if you wanted a fun game to play with friends [ Read More ]

Now since I’ve been writing about exergaming, I’ve been pleading with developers to make us a game that’s as fun as is it effective for fitness. Ubisoft just announced a game called Shape Up for Xbox One, slated to be released on November 11, 2014. If the game is as fun and creative as it looks like in this trailer, Ubisoft might have another Just Dance-like winner on its hands. [ Read More ]

While Microsoft’s Xbox Fitness continues to be impressive, it’s been a while since we’ve seen a true “exergame”, that is, a motion control title on a console that’s not just good for exercise that’s also fun and addictive to play as a video game. Just when you thought exergaming was all but dead with the exit of publishers like EA and disappointing Kinect 2 games like Fighter Within and Kinect Sports Rivals, [ Read More ]

Kinect Sports Rivals for Xbox One What could have and should have been a “killer app” for the Xbox One ushering a new era in motion gaming fails to take advantage of the superior technology of the Xbox One and Kinect 2.0 and ends up feeling like a weak upgrade to Kinect Sports for the Xbox 360. Rating by steve: 3.5 stars As you could read from past posts on [ Read More ]

A while back I reviewed Zumba Fitness World Party for the Xbox 360, giving it 4.5 out of 5 stars. It’s easily the most polished of the Zumba Fitness series that dates back to November 2010 (and which got a less-than-stellar review from me here). Zumba Fitness World Party for Xbox One was one of the launch titles for the Xbox One; Majesco is clearly banking on the hopes that [ Read More ]

Just Dance 2014 for Xbox One Does a good job of replicating everything that made Just Dance successful on the Wii, the Wii U, the Playstation 3, and the Xbox 360. Hopefully one day we’ll see a version that truly takes full advantage of all the Xbox One and Kinect 2.0 have to offer. But this isn’t it. Rating by steve: 4 stars Admittedly, it’s a bit tricky to write [ Read More ]

Fighter Within If you’re expecting a true showcase of the Xbox One’s Kinect features, you’ll be in for a disappointment. In many ways this is a sloppy, lazy implementation of Kinect that has more similarities to 30-year old button mashing fighter games than it does to a new generation of virtual reality fighters. But go in with the right expectations, and you can still have some fun and get a [ Read More ]

Xbox Fitness Start with some of the most famous exercise videos and exercise video personalities in the world, add the incredibly precise tracking of Kinect 2.0, add things like scores, stars, achievements, challenges, social interaction to make the exercise videos feel almost like games, and use the storage capacity of the Xbox One to keep a history of video workouts. That’s a winning combination that in many ways represents a [ Read More ]

About this Blog

Welcome to XboxFitness.Org! Since 2011, this blog has been providing the latest news from around the industry on using the Xbox and Kinect for fitness and exercise, as well as objective, comprehensive reviews of the latest games that provide a great workout.

For those who doubt that video games can be used effectively in an exercise regimen, I've personally been able to lose 30 pounds through watching my diet and exercising regularly. If I can do it, you can do it too!

(Note that this site is not affiliated with the Microsoft service of the same name, launched in late 2013).

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